[jsg]

semi willing test subject

[jsg]

semi willing test subject

[jsg]

[jsg]

newbie here be gentle

[shuttertalk]

Hey there jsg, welcome to Shuttertalk.

Thanks for sharing the portraits - very good of you to do so, and we always enjoy looking at pics.

I like #1 - they eyes are very captivating. I like how you've filled the frame as well - many photographers are afraid to do so when shooting people...


Would you mind telling us more about yourself and your photography?

Jules

[Petographer]

Welcome to Shuttertalk jsg. I hate to pick apart a newcomers photos but you did post in critique so here goes. All are out of focus. #1 being the most clear. Seems that you need to open up that aperture a little and check your point of focus on the camera. If in fact you have the selection. Your crops seem not quite right. In #1 and #2 the tight crop on the sides would be fine but there is too much room above and below. Either open it up on the sides or tighten the top and bottom. Your composition is good in #3. You used the rule of thirds by placing her eyes in the upper right quadrant. I might suggest a little crop off the top. Your colour balance is quite a bit on the red side. #2 come closer to a more natural colour and lighting.

Don't let my critique discourage you. Keep trying. We are all here to help. Looking forward to more.

[jsg]

thanks for the feedback really cant discourage me lol im not real thin skinned always welcome tips and tricks . i actually wanted them a little oof more like a dream state #2 actually has a little guassin blur applied i kind of like that look . cropping you are correct need work on that . as far as the red look i didnt even think about that got a lot to learn thanks jerry

[wulinka]

Hi jsg,

welcome to Shuttertalk and thanks for sharing your portrait shots!

What is your equipment?

One thing I find is that the "digital" 4x6 format is not always quite suitable for portraits, so you might often find yourself cropping them to something closer to the classic 35mm or 8x10 format.
The good news is that 8x10 prints are usually cheaper than 8x12 inches :-)

Here is what I mean, and obviously others might disagree and want to crop differently:







I like your composition in #1, although I would like it much more if her right arm wasn't covering part of her face, and if it wasn't for the blurry something at the bottom of the picture. I left part of that in my crop, for proportions, but you would need to clean it up (or even better not get anything between the lense and her face!).

And it is unfortunate, that your subject seems clearly more "semi" than "willing" ;-), but that is one of the hardest bit I found about learning to take portraits: that you have to find patient subjects....

I am also wondering about the blur, especially in #2. It does not look like a normal lense blur at wide aperture, what lense are you using?
Did you introduce blur in postprocessing?

Even though your subject's eyes are pretty much in focus in #2, and you even have a nice catchlight there, I dislike the way her mouth and chin are blured.

Finally, #3 is actually a nice pose! but you took this picture in low light, didn't you? there are some pretty nasty artifacts on her cheeks, possibly from brightening up a JPEG file?
It is hard to shoot indoors without proper lighting, but there are some relativly easy ways to overcome that. If possible, you should position your subject near a window, gives you light and can create nice catchlights in the eyes at the same time.
A flash helps a lot, and in the simplest case you just point it at the ceiling and you get decent light right away. From there you can explore all the different ways, conventional and unconventional, to light your subject.

One of the ST members recently published this article on putting together a budget lighting system, you should check it out for futur plans!


Wow, that was a lot of stuff to take in, hope it helps a little.
looking forward to seeing more from you soon,

uli

[jsg]

thanks for the crops im useing canon 10d and 50mm1.8